THE BOOK OF GENESIS

The Book of Genesis received its English name from the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “toledot,” which is used thirteen times in Genesis and is translated as “story” (2.4), “record” (5.1), or “line” (10.1). In Hebrew, Genesis is know by its first word, bereishit, which means, “In the beginning.” Genesis is about beginnings--the beginning of the natural world, the beginning of human culture, and the beginning of the people of Israel, whose story occupies most of this book and will dominate the rest of the Torah. In the ancient Near Eastern world in which Israel emerged, beginnings were deemed to be crucial, for the origins of things were thought to disclose their character and purpose.

Genesis takes the reader to the moment when the Creator spoke into being the matchless wonders of sun, moon, stars, planets, galaxies, plants, and moving creatures, and the one he made in His own image. These fifty chapters tell us how sin came stealthily and relentlessly to bring ruin, disfigurement, and death. They reveal the tragic fruits of sin in defeat; and later, how the accumulated wickedness of men almost brought annihilation to human society. The growth of humanity, and later, the lives of the Hebrew patriarchs are traced to the death of Joseph in Egypt.

Over time the authorship of Genesis has been credited to Moses. It would be difficult to find a man better qualified to write the book than Moses. Trained in the wisdom of the Egyptians, he would have understood available records, manuscripts, and oral narratives. As a prophet he was granted the unusual privilege of unhurried hours of communion with God in the desert and on Mount Sinai. He was well equipped to record for all generations the Lord’s portrayal of his activities through the ages. Sources: The Jewish Study Bible and the Open Bible.


1. EARLY BEGINNINGS 1.1-11.32From the creation through the building of the tower of Babel (Mystery Babylon).


A. THE CREATION 1.1-2.25
1.1-5 Day one…God creates the heaven and earth. The earth is without form and void. Darkness is upon the deep and the spirit of God moved upon the waters. God said “let there be light” and there was light. God sees that the light is good and separates it from the darkness. God called the light Day and the darkness Night. The evening and morning were Day One.

The void was chaos, desolation, and confusion. This was due to Satan’s rebellion in heaven at the time. When God said, “let there be light” this was the recreation of earth after Satan’s rebellion had created the chaos. God is light--His light will separate from darkness. God saw (knows) that light is good. It is the dividing sword between goodness and evil. God calls the light Day and the darkness Night. The Hebrew day begins at dusk (6 PM) and ends the following evening at dusk (6 PM). That is why God called evening and morning Day One. (Greco-Roman day begins at midnight.)

In science, photons colliding with electrons keep light from breaking free. When photons break free and are able to freely travel there is light. Light was held within the primeval mass (darkness) until God set it free. “Let there be light.” The division by God between light, which is totally composed of photons, and darkness takes on a significance consistent with its literal meaning…“and God separated between the light and the darkness.” Gen 1:4

The text does not say, and that was the “first day”, it says “and that was Day One.” This indicates there was no day as we know days before this Day One.

The first letter of the first word in the sacred writings (Genesis) is the Hebrew letter Beth. It is on this first letter that the ancient sages base their understanding of creation--that any knowledge of what preceded the beginning of creation before Adam’s creation is unattainable by investigation. That is, the investigation of the mere mind of man.


The shape of the letter Beth is that it is closed on three sides and open only in the forward direction. It’s shape is similar to our C, but with the opening facing left, like this ב. Hebrew is written from right to left. The sages saw the meaning of this opening letter, the Bet or Beth, as being bounded on all sides except forward (the opening faces forward). Therefore all events that occur after the beginning (the creation of Adam) are those which are accessible to human investigation (the open end of the bet). Those that precede the beginning, the time of creation, the back of the bet, are not open to investigation--only God has knowledge of these events and how they unfolded.

Hebrews count time, as we know it from the creation of man, Adam. Therefore in the year 2014 on the Gregorian calendar it is 5774 on the Hebrew calendar. This is calculated by using the genealogy’s which are written in the Bible. According to that calculation, since Adam was created 5,774 years have passed. What went on prior to Adam is calculated by God, but not in time as we know it. That time is on God’s clock.

1.6-8 And God said, “let there be an expanse in the midst of the water.” This is to divide the waters from the waters. God makes the “expanse” and it separated the water which was below the expanse from those above the expanse. God called the expanse (firmament) Heaven or Sky. The evening and morning were the second day.

The function of the heaven or sky is to separate the waters above, which fall as rain, from the subterranean waters which rise as springs. (See Gen 7.11, this was the first time it rained.)

1.9-13 God says, “Let the water below the heavens (sky) be gathered into one area, that dry land may appear.” God calls the dry land Earth and the waters Seas. God sees that this is good and tells the earth to sprout vegetation, seed bearing plants, and fruit trees. God saw this was good and called the evening and morning, a third day.

God speaks and the land and seas separate, vegetation grows. How long did it take? This all happens behind the opening of the Bet, or Beth so it could have taken millions of years according to Hebrew tradition. Hebrews do not count time as we do until after Adam is created. Everything prior is God’s day. A day is as a thousand years to the Lord.

In the Jewish view, and I have spoken to Jewish scholars about this, the first six days of creation are in a “time” that only God understands. These first six days are a period of unknown time they say, therefore it can be billions of years in our understanding but a mere blip to God.

Time is relative to location. Clocks run faster on the moon because gravity has an effect on the passage of time. A plane traveling in the direction of the earth’s rotation will cause a clock to gain time. Flying in the opposite direction the clock looses time. From our vantage point in the universe time appears to stand still--the stars appear stationary. They are in reality moving away from us at great speed.

Creation was six days in God’s time frame--but 15 billion in ours--both are correct. In the science of cosmology, the big bang theory and Einstein’s theory of relativity confirm that 6 days and 15 billion years are one and the same. If science and the sacred writings (the Bible) take the time to examine each other they line up together. The differences in motions and gravitational forces among the various galaxies, or even among stars in a single galaxy, make the absolute passage of time a very local affair. Time differs from place to place as we saw above on the moon. Until Adam was created on the sixth day, God alone was watching the clock--and that is the key.

1.14-19 God creates lights in the heavens to separate day from night. They are to serve as signs for the set times--the days and the years (calendar), and to shine on the earth. God makes two great lights, the greater to dominate the day and the lesser to dominate the night. God saw that this was good, and there was evening and morning, a fourth day.

The sun and moon are created on the fourth day and are not named, only referred to as the greater and lesser light. This may be an implicit word against the worship of astral bodies, see 2 Kings 23.5.


1.20-23 God creates great whales, sea creatures, and winged fowl after their kind. God saw that this was good and blessed them saying, “Be fertile and multiply, fill the waters and the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth. This was the morning and evening of the fifth day.

It is key to understand that as God began creating life He created them after their own kind. This aims directly at the theory of evolution. Life is created after its own kind--it doesn’t morph into something else.

1.24-25 God creates all kinds of living creatures after their kind; cattle, creeping things, and wild beasts of every kind, and sees that it is good.

1.26-28 God says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” God creates male and female, blesses them and tells them to be fertile and increase, fill the earth, and master it; rule the fish of the sea, birds of the sky, and all living things on the earth.

When God said, “Let us make…” He was talking to Jesus. He already knew that He would be coming to earth in human form as Jesus Christ. We are made in the image and likeness of God. You are not a “monkey’s uncle.” Man is given “stewardship” over the earth--to take care of it. Later, Adam will be given care of the garden. This is the first mention of God creating man and women. Later we will be given more details.

1.29-31 God gives every seed bearing plant, fruit bearing tree to be food for man and beast. God sees this is all very good. There was evening and morning the sixth day.

Apparently man was a vegetarian or frugivores eating the seeds of plants and trees.


Next: Part 2